"I can..." Gu Mian began, thinking he could form a team by himself.
But before Gu Mian could finish, Qing Huan interrupted him. "Then Iâll team up with Dr. Gu."
Gu Mian silently swallowed his words.
Yuwen Hao looked at them, then at the remaining Lin Yueâer and Huang Yu. "I donât think anyone wants to be on their own, so the three of us will form a team."
Lin Yueâer and Huang Yu tacitly agreed.
Yuwen Hao pulled a cell phone from his pocket and handed it to Gu Mian. "I bought this phone on the way here. I have one too. It doesnât have many features, but it already has a SIM card. Your phone has my number stored, so itâll be easier for our two teams to communicate."
It was 2002, a time when you could get a SIM card without an ID.
Gu Mian took the phone and pocketed it in his white coat.
Yuwen Hao continued, "Weâll meet back here at five in the afternoon... no, four. We need to leave time to discuss where to live."
Gu Mian didnât think changing houses would stop the ghost from following them, but since his teammates wanted to do it, he wouldnât object.
After the discussion, the frail-looking teammates finally dispersed to get started.
The four of them hadnât slept much the previous night. The consequences of staying up all night in the instance were the same as in real life: severe sleep deprivation and extremely low efficiency.
Qing Huan was yawning profusely as he followed Gu Mian out the door.
Gu Mian glanced at him. "Itâs not good for young men to stay up late often. It can lead to kidney deficiency and, in severe cases, even infertility."
Hearing this, Qing Huan paused for a moment. "Doctor, you seem to know a lot about this."
Gu Mian walked quickly on the asphalt road. "Iâm a doctor; of course, I know about these things."
Qing Huan jogged to catch up. "But Dr. Gu, are you an internist?"
The sun was slowly climbing higher; it seemed like a nice day.
Gu Mian looked up at the sun. "No, Iâm the kind of surgeon who can skillfully use a hammer, tweezers, a small knife, an electric drill, and a chainsaw."
"A surgeon..." Qing Huan paused. "Surgeons also know so much about the dangers of staying up late?"
In his mind, surgeons were extremely skilled with their hands and equally adept with their words, often loving to tell crude jokes. However, no surgeon had ever educated him on the dangers of pulling all-nighters.
"When I was in school, I memorized the textbooksâthe entire book. Of course, I remember it all clearly."
"Didnât your teachers highlight the important points for you?"
"Patients donât get sick according to the âimportant pointsâ."
"..."
Amidst their idle chat, the two finally arrived at Gu Mianâs residence, which was a rented house.
It was a rather shabby apartment building with a gabled roof, from which hung a sign reading âHongsheng Apartmentâ. The building itself had been painted yellow, but it seemed the paint had run out near the top, so a similar light pink color had been used as a substitute in an attempt to pass it off.
However, this attempt at camouflage was poor; the band of light pink at the top was very conspicuous. Anyone with even moderate nearsightedness could clearly see the different colors on the building.
This building had three sections and five floors, with ten apartments per section. However, only five households remained in the entire building.
Gu Mian knew which unit the landlord occupied because a large sheet of paper was posted at the buildingâs entrance, bearing a handwritten line:
"Tenants, please pay your utilities on time each month at the west unit, fifth floor, Section 3."
Gu Mian lived in the east unit on the first floor of Section 1, the farthest from the landlord.
Without dwelling on whether his unit was far from or close to the landlordâs, Gu Mian headed towards Section 3, with Qing Huan hurrying to keep up.
Perhaps due to his poor sleep the previous night, Qing Huan was panting heavily by the time they reached the fourth floor, repeatedly drawing Gu Mianâs attention.
"Bro," he patted Qing Huanâs shoulder, "why are you so out of shape?"
Qing Huan looked up at him in surprise. "Doctor, youâre in great shape! Carrying such a big guitar on your back and youâre not even winded after four flights of stairs?"
Of course, I am. Iâm carrying a chainsaw. If I werenât in good shape, my corpse would probably be rotting somewhere unknown by now.
Qing Huan straightened up and continued climbing. "I havenât exercised much since starting college. Classrooms are mostly on the first or second floor, and even walking from the dorm to the school gate to pick up a package tires me out. Besides, there are elevators everywhere now; I havenât really exercised in ages."
The physical fitness of Earthlings is truly precarious,
Gu Mian thought.
After considerable effort, Gu Mian got Qing Huan to the fifth floor. Gu Mian was about to knock on the east-side door, but before he could raise his hand, the door of the apartment opposite the landlordâs was pulled open from the inside with a SQUEAK.
They both turned to look.
At that moment, the door behind them opened a crack. Half a womanâs face appeared in the gap; the light was dim, making it hard to see her clearly.
The woman behind that door stared at them and asked, her tone somewhat unnatural, "Who are you...?"
Gu Mian looked at her. "Iâve also rented an apartment here. I have a few questions for the landlord. And you are?"
But the woman showed no interest in conversing. She just uttered a cold "Oh," and then SLAM! The door was shut.
Qing Huan leaned in mysteriously. "Based on my years of reading supernatural novels, thereâs definitely something wrong with that woman!"
So this is what Chinese literature students do in their spare time?
Gu Mian mused.
Without further delay, Gu Mian knocked on the landlordâs door.
After a few seconds, a sound came from within. They heard someone slowly approach the door and then pull it open a crack.
A wrinkled face appeared from behind the door. The landlord was an elderly woman, a granny with snow-white hairânot a muddled, grayish-white, but a pure, translucent white without a hint of impurity.
She was neatly dressed, wore glasses, and held a yellowed newspaper in her hand.
"Xiao Gu!" Seeing Gu Mian, she warmly pulled the door fully open and ushered him in. "What brings you here?"
The instance had assigned identities to everyone, though it hadnât provided them with the specific details.
Clearly, the landlord recognized Gu Mian, but Gu Mian didnât recognize her, so he had to play along.
He sat on the sofa, offering a strained smile. "Well, itâs like this. For the past couple of days, Iâve felt that something isnât quite right with my apartment, so I came to ask you about it."
"Not right?" The landlord pushed up the glasses that had slipped down her nose, looking surprised. "Whatâs not right about it?"
Gu Mian looked at her. "There are strange knocking sounds at night."
"Strange knocking sounds?" The landlord slowly repeated the words, her expression initially tinged with doubt. Then, as if suddenly recalling something, her face changed dramatically.